I know, we usually only talk about conversion rates (CvR). But here’s the problem: Conversion rates are often great as a metric when you’re performing an A/B test, since all variants enter the page under the same circumstances. But if we’re looking at conversion rates over a period of time, the metric will be influenced by campaigns, seasonality, media mix and the site. And, if the company start optimizing towards getting the highest conversion rate, we risk marketing towards only lower-funnel visitors who already have decided to buy and thereby shutting down our growth (since we need to reach upper-funnel visitors as well in order to keep on getting new customers).

So when we now start the journey towards becoming great at mobile – how do we know, from just looking at conversion rates, if the metric moves by changes on the site or changes in marketing?

We pretty much don’t. And that’s why I personally see the benefit of relative mobile conversion rate.

Relative mobile conversion rate is calculated by dividing the mobile conversion rate with the desktop conversion rate. And since the same campaigns and seasons reach both mobile and desktop, most that has to do with marketing will be removed from influencing the metric. Instead, we can track if the mobile site, in itself, becomes stronger or weaker (compared to the desktop site).

So what’s a good target?

A study by Monetate in July 2018 showed that the Rel mCvR for some of the large e-commerce companies were at 53%. Do you beat that? You will have to, if you want to become the best, as mobile now is the primary device for consumers.

I would recommend that you set a target for your Rel mCvR when you start working with site speed and conversion rate optimization. Make sure you’re above 50% now – and then start going after 70% within 2019. Are you up for the challenge?

(And yes, Rel mCvR will be influenced if your desktop site suddenly has a technical error. This is why you always should take a look at the desktop conversion rate to make sure that nothing unordinary has happened there. Site speed usually gives a great uplift to the Rel mCvR, as mobile is so dependent on speed, but it will of course also improve the desktop conversion rate somewhat. Remember, you can use this script built by me and my colleague Freddie Jansson if you want to see your progress within Rel mCvR in correlation to mobile site speed the last 6 months.)

About Me

Lina Hansson

With a background in journalism and digital marketing, I now work as a Conversion Specialist at Google, helping our biggest clients increase their mobile conversions by training teams in conversion rate optimization, speed optimization and UX audits. Opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.